By Lisa Regula Meyer In my Biological Diversity class, I spend a decent amount of time helping my students to understand two major concepts surrounding niches. An organism’s niche is essentially the role that it plays in its environment and the sum of all its traits. To be specific, its niche is divided into two […]

By Lisa Regula Meyer We’ve recently seen judges move more and more quickly to rule on the side of equality in cases involving same sex marriage bans and the like, with the recent Texas case being a great demonstration of just that move forward. I’m in Ohio, where we have a similar ban in the […]

By Lisa Regula Meyer The last couple of weeks haven’t brought lots of interesting news around our house. If I’m being honest, it’s been simply more of the same with a friend having a biopsy for possible cancer later this week (can I say “Screw you, cancer”), another friend going through health complications (on top […]

By Lisa Regula Meyer Apparently, there’s a man in Utah protesting the recent expansion of marriage equality in that state by starving himself. I’m all for his sentiment of preferring action over speeches, and standing up for your principles. At the same time, though, I have to wonder if his chosen action fits with the […]

By Lisa Regula Meyer The holidays are in full swing (and will be over by the time this post is up), and I’m trying to focus on the positive. It should be a happy time of the year, and this should be considered a good year for our family- no deaths, I graduated, Kenny is […]

By Lisa Regula Meyer Holidays are supposed to be happy and joyful occasions surrounded by family and friends, but for those who have had a falling out with their family, or who have lost loved ones through death or estrangement, the holidays can be everything but happy and joyful. All too often, teens and young […]

By Lisa Regula Meyer Today marks the start of the holiday shopping season, the day after Thanksgiving, when Americans take to the malls in droves looking for spectacular deals on the latest, greatest thing for this year. Or at least it had been the start of the shopping season until the recent craze of opening […]

By Lisa Regula-Meyer I’m a biologist, and as such, I care about the words we use for things. Words, especially names, in biology mean a lot- they can tell us details about who an organism is related to or similar to, or some of that thing’s history (where it was found, who described it), and […]

By Lisa Regula Meyer Over the weekend, our family was enjoying some down time and relaxing by watching old episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. Nothing surprising or extraordinary about that, as we’re huge science fiction/fantasy geeks. The episode on was “Cogenitor,” a story of first contact with an alien species that has three sexes instead […]

By: Lisa Regula- Meyer The school year is in full swing now in Kent, and we’re heartily enjoying life with a second grader. Specifically, we’re enjoying this second grader and his second grade class. This year, our school is trying out a mixed 1st and 2nd grade classroom. Two teachers, two student teachers, and two […]